By Jeremy D. Wells
Carter County Times
Most of the items contained in the Jack Fultz scrapbooks are newspaper clippings, which have been our primary source for this series since it began. But newspaper clippings weren’t all Fultz collected in his scrapbooks. The bound volumes also contain copies of legal documents, letters, telegrams, and the findings of court proceedings.
And, reproduced in miniature, a 53 page account of the Rowan County War, published by the Holmes-Darst Coal Company in 1924. The booklet, Stories of Kentucky Feuds by Harold Wilson Coates, gives a highly dramatized account of the infamous feud between the Tolliver and Martin families. But while it’s dramatized, it isn’t fictionalized, and in between some cringe inducing attempts at dialect there is a decent examination of the feud, and the politics behind it.
While there is an intense focus on the evils of liquor, and the role of moonshine and whiskey in lowering inbitions and exciting tempers – this was the Prohibition Era after all – it’s an interesting and informative read.
Liquor no doubt played its part, as did simple conflicts of personality. But at its heart the Rowan County War, like the Underwood War, was a reflection of partisan political tensions which, in the post-war era, still reflected personal feuds and split alliances leftover from America’s Civil War.
In the case of the Rowan County War it was a race between Democratic and Republican candidates for sheriff that ignited the feud.
In the case of the Underwood War, which Dr. Gerald Dyson very briefly touched upon in his recent presentation on the Civil War in Carter County, it was a falling out between former Union allies – both the Holbrooks and the Underwoods were part of the Home Guard that helped push Morgan’s Raiders out of the region – over the possible theft of a horse.
We’ll touch more on the Underwood/Holbrook feud in a future column, one of the few where we’re forced to look outside of the Jack Fultz collection to find contemporary accounts. For now, we hope you enjoy these excerpts from the Coates’ book.
Contact the writer at editor@cartercountytimes.com
